


The Fate Of Us All

by Eustacia Vye (eustaciavye)



Series: Infinity War Fix It [18]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-16
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2019-07-13 06:52:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16012574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eustaciavye/pseuds/Eustacia%20Vye
Summary: This is everything it all had been culminating into. Time to fight Thanos.





	The Fate Of Us All

Waken Field was a massive complex of black stone and metal, with a tall fence surrounding a yard of dust and more stone. It was imposing to look at, a gash of black on an otherwise lifeless asteroid. "The armory is in the back of the fortifications," Nebula announced across the comm channel their fleet was using. It was a ragtag collection of ships, some retrofitted to accommodate a FTL drive. She'd sneered at the commissioning ceremonies in different countries and languages, but it had helped the humans band together. Ultimately, they flew and kept up with Quill's ship. That was all that mattered.

There was no need to imagine the gawking on the other ships when humans here were doing it right in front of her as well. Jane's gawking carried childlike joy and wonder, and for a moment, Nebula almost wished she could see the stars the same way. But her innocence had been burned away as a child, and all that was a wellspring of hate and misery.

"I think all of the ships survived," Jane chirped at Nebula, eyes sparkling. They all had, so Jane grinned at Nebula, practically bouncing on her toes. "It was amazing!" She was wide eyed and her lips were stretched almost wide enough to consume her face. "You get to see this _all the time."_

"The shiny wears off after a while," Nebula muttered grimly.

"Oh, I hope not. So many new stars, new readings to take..." She saw Nebula's glower and it seemed to sink in for the first time. "Um. I'll think on it."

"I've seen what good knowledge can do," Nebula continued in her grim tones. "It's all a matter of time."

"You know," Jane thoughtfully began, "the more you talk, the less I think of the people you used to spend time with." She didn't blink at Nebula's glare. "Because there's so much in the universe already that can be awful, and all they did was focus on that. Why not see the beauty out there? It takes nothing out of you, and is less likely to make you feel sick."

"I was raised by killers," Nebula growled.

Jane reached out and took Nebula's hand despite her glower, giving it a reassuring pat. "You're in better company now. We'll take care of each other."

"You can't take care of me," Nebula snarled, snatching her hand away from Jane's grasp.

"You can fight, and I can calculate the jumps and gravity strains on the hull," Jane told her flatly. "I think that's a fair exchange, don't you?"

Nebula opened her mouth, then closed it. "Oh."

"Not everything is a fight," Jane said quietly. "And that's why we're doing this, so that it doesn't have to always come down to a fight."

The blue skinned woman snorted. "There's always a fight. There's always a tyrant that won't take no for an answer."

Jane had to concede the point. "Well, we're here, anyway. Take care of yourself in there."

She looked at Jane in surprise. "I am a warrior."

"This is a bad place with bad memories. Don't get lost in them, Nebula. We need you."

Oddly touched, all Nebula could do was nod before moving toward the equipment bay to get the suits. She tried not to think there was any meaning in taking the one from Gamora's slot, and snarled at anyone that came in too close.

Bad memories, indeed. Waken Field was full of them, and Nebula didn't want to face hers.

She so rarely ever got what she wanted.

***

The life support systems were on minimum, enough to keep the pipes from freezing or bursting. Air was thin inside, but present, and everyone was able to hit the button to deactivate the breathing filters.

Natasha, Steve, Rocket, Okoye, and Tony were down on the ground with Nebula; she and Rocket were the likely ones to hack the controls, and the rest would handle the fighting that erupted if it did. Representatives from other ships were going to be elsewhere in the base, to keep forces spread out and away from the data controls. Nebula knew there would be the housing halls, indoor salles, hydroponic bays, med labs, and armory to contend with.

She moved through the halls swiftly after they breached the outer airlock. The entire facility seemed quiet and still, and was too eerie to move through. "My sensors are coming up with a lot of nothing," Tony announced after there were a few more empty halls. He was following Okoye, and noticed how dusty the halls seemed. "Uh, guys, if I scan the dust, how much you wanna bet it's all organic?" he asked, voice scratchy.

"No bet, Stark," Rocket grumbled, subdued. "This place is creepy. Everybody that survived probably took off. Why stay in this death trap?"

"Normally, leaving before getting an assignment to do so was death," Nebula intoned from the lead. "A very public execution when you were caught, and that would deter anyone else from trying it."

"Dictator rules," Steve muttered, shaking his head. "They're the same all over the galaxy."

"So where did the survivors go?" Natasha asked.

"Hopefully they didn't empty the armory, or this entire exercise is flarked," Rocket grumbled.

"Or did they they think they were being tested? Or left to die?" Natasha asked, looking grim.

"This doesn't help us," Nebula said, bristling. "If they're locked in the armory, we will deal with it." She raised a blaster in hand. "However we need to."

"If they're even still alive," Natasha commented.

That silenced discussion until they got to the armory. Other than dust on the floors, nothing moved, and it was eerie and dark. Nebula actually scowled when the armory was easy to open. "This is too easy."

The armory was empty. It had been picked clean of all supplies. Stalking toward a terminal, Nebula growled and pulled up security and training footage.

Thanos' snap had decimated the trainees, and almost all of the sadistic instructors. A number of trainees had ganged up to kill the remaining ones in the confusion. They broke open the armory to take supplies and leave.

Nebula started going through the network, and Rocket took up a terminal next to her in order to go through it from another angle. It was the same on most bases, with the conscripted forces taking off after overpowering whoever they could. There were some bases where the mutinies were put down with extreme prejudice, leaving none of them alive.

"We still have twenty Black Order devotees scattered across the galaxy," Nebula reported sourly.

"Any other intel?" Natasha asked.

"Or weapons? Fuel?" Rocket chimed in, scrolling through whatever data he could find.

She snarled and simply went through the database as Tony and Steve reported in to the armada above. "This is the biggest training facility!" Nebula shouted in frustration. "It shouldn't have emptied this much!"

"But that means that the Black Order is collapsing, yes?" Okoye asked her. "With no one in charge, no purpose any longer."

"And there's no sign of Thanos anywhere!" Nebula raged. "He pulled this off and fucked off to nowhere, and we can't undo it."

"I think we've been looking at this like a battle," Steve commented, hearing that. "We're fighting, but he's done. We haven't been thinking like him."

"Because he's full of shit and believes his own lies," Nebula snarled.

"So when someone like that thinks they've won, and gotten everything they've ever wanted," he prodded, "where do they go?"

"Home," Tony offered. "Though his home planet was an utter wasteland."

"I doesn't have to be anymore," Natasha pointed out. "He has the reality stone. He can make reality look like however he wants."

Okoye looked around the empty base. "This was no one's home, so no one is here. There's nothing worth defending any longer." She looked at Nebula. "Where would home be for you?"

"I don't have one."

"Where would Thanos feel at home? Where would he relax with a mai tai?" Tony asked her.

"His own people thought he was a monster. He build bases and conquered planets and killed." She scowled at Tony. "The closest thing he ever did to relaxing was watching the rest of us bleed for his amusement!"

"Where?" Tony prompted.

"Nolcan," Nebula spat.

"Then that's where we need to go," Steve said, understanding in his voice. "We might not make it, but we need to at least try."

"We need to rip him limb from limb so that he feels even a fraction of the eternal torment that we do," Nebula replied.

"And on that very goth note," Tony began, approaching her, "do we need to supply up before we get there?"

"There were few resources on Nolcan," Nebula growled. "That's why we had to battle to the death for them."

"A way to separate the best from those not able to carry their own weight," Natasha said, nodding because it made sense to her. "Thanos may have changed it, maybe not. Assuming it's the harsh place you remember, can we make it without letting him know until it's too late?"

"We have rations and fuel to get there," Nebula admitted reluctantly.

"Ready to make him pay?" Okoye asked.

Nebula looked around the empty halls, the scattered dust on the floor. "Yeah. We're done here," she growled, then stalked past them all to approach the shuttle.

The jumps to Nolcan would be easy for Jane to calculate, so the entire fleet would be there in no time at all.

***

Nolcan used to be an arid planet, with mostly scrub brush vegetation and small animal life forms. It usually looked brownish-olive in color on approach because of that. Right now, it looked lush and green, with large bodies of water and hazy clouds all over. Some of the green was carved up into squares and rectangles of other colors, as if farms of various crops were set up on the planet.

"Someone made liberal use of that reality stone," Natasha commented when she saw it.

"Sensor scans indicate mostly animal life forms," Shuri announced over the comm signal. "There's one area that doesn't have too many animals, but there are still heat signatures on the surface."

"It's got to be Thanos," Steve said, looking at the scan of the planet's surface.

Shuri sent coordinates to the entire fleet so that they could land and then begin to figure out the best way to attack. "If he can change reality and hit harder than anyone in the universe, then we have to be coordinated and clever, do what he doesn't expect," she said.

"We need to overwhelm him," Nebula said, staring at the screen. "He can't have any time to think or react."

"Mantis distracted him last time, but..." Tony voice faltered as he remembered the sight of her disintegrating into ashes. "Um. Well, we need something else this time."

Nebula looked at Rocket. "How big an explosion can you make out of materials we have here?"

Rocket grinned and began to cackle. "Oh yeah, you'll see it on the next planet over. What do you have in mind?"

Her eyes were alight with unholy glee. "He wanted to make this planet into a paradise, so let's destroy it all."

***

The bombs Rocket created were things of beauty, creating devastation that ricocheted out and masked the entry point of the fleet. Thanos' roar of rage was loud and frightening to some of the volunteers from Earth, who really didn't have a good idea what they had gotten themselves into. "I wasn't religious before," one muttered uneasily, looking around, "but I need to go back to temple and pray for a hundred years."

"What are you talking about?" Okoye asked the man warily. She already felt uneasy enough being in a strange place with hundreds of fighters she'd never trained with, and the calculated destruction of a paradise, however eerie, didn't sit well with her.

"Don't you see the red glowy things in the ground?" the soldier asked her, pointing. "Like the ground is alive or something."

The words made her shiver and look even closer to where the soldier was pointing. The red shimmering cast to the ground looked an awful lot like the magic that the Avengers' friend had used to kill Proxima Midnight. She looked for Natasha in the crowd, and found her near one of the other volunteer corps, directing them to fan out and track Thanos' movements.

"There is magic here," she told Natasha without ceremony. "It looks like the kind your friend had."

Natasha's eyes widened. "But Wanda turned to ash. Unless he got everyone's powers..."

"Bast have mercy!" Okoye cried.

The red glow was all around them, like a foggy mist rising up from the ground. There was no missing it now, and a number of Avengers noticed and recognized it.

"No, Thanos doesn't have magic," Tony said loudly, voice carrying in the stunned silence. "Whatever this is, it isn't him."

Almost in response to his words, the sun in the sky flared bright enough to blind, causing everyone to shut their eyes in pain but Thor. His eyes crackled with lightning, even the artificial one. "The sun will shine on us again."

"What?" Tony asked, looking around.

"It's not the sun in this solar system," Jane reported via the intercoms. "There's no sign of any solar flares, either. Whatever you're seeing is happening down there on the planet."

The light had a greenish gold cast to it, and Thor began to laugh delightedly. "Even from the beyond we have have help to defeat Thanos. We will surely win now."

If anyone was going to reply, it was cut off as the ground began to shake. The tremors didn't crack the ground, but it was to unstable to stand on. Everyone had to lurch forward unsteadily, trying to get to the location of Thanos' cottage between the acres of farmland. The closer they gt, the more unsteady the ground became, and soon everyone could see why -- Thanos was trying to repair the damage done by Rocket's bombs as well as fight off Nebula's front line attack while the reddish glow was countering his efforts and restoring the damage.

"Um... Are we seeing things?" Tony asked.

"Looks like we're getting some magical help from beyond the grave," Steve said, looking around them. "So it's time to start the party."

On that signal, everyone went forward into the clearing in waves, according to plan. As Thanos fought Nebula and the red magic, he was shouting "You don't understand! You're destroying the world!"

Most knives didn't cut him and the bullets barely did, but even the smallest of annoyances were still adding up. Thanos swung his arms, and Nebula and three soldiers from South America went flying. One had just about every rib in her body broken. More came in after them, shooting and stabbing whenever they could. Thanos growled when the light overhead was bright enough to hurt his eyes, and the reality stone didn't change it.

Shadows moved across the world, humanoid shaped and almost familiar in how they moved. They moved between the volunteers, flowing fast over the red tinged earth. In those spots, they seemed almost solid, almost whole. The shadows were achingly familiar then, and people could imagine their voices coming out of those open shadow mouths, yells of indignation and frustration. _We're here, we're here, you can't erase us!_ they seemed to shout.

Thanos couldn't see, couldn't block out the light. Some of the humans were nearly blinded by it as well, but most were still able to come in close. He tried waving the Infinity Gauntlet, but the weapons all remained the same. The reality stone didn't seem to work, and even trying to warp space didn't do anything. The yellow stone glowed prominently as the red magic haze surrounded the gauntlet.

Tony took advantage of the confusion to start pulling it off Thanos' arm, and Thor shot him with bolts of lighting. One of the volunteers that had been holding onto Thanos' arm didn't get out of the way fast enough, and was electrocuted along with Thanos. He was frozen in place by the lightning bolt, still appearing alive as his body jerked. Tony nodded at him, thinking he was still helping brace Thanos' arm, and continued prying off the gauntlet.

Valkyrie stabbed Thanos with Dragonfang, a fierce cry on her lips. Okoye was there, looking at Tony as if he was an idiot, and brought the edge of her vibranium spear onto Thanos' arm. In his weakened state, the vibranium cut straight through to the bone. The pain jolted him, making him roar again. Another volunteer that had been part of Valkyrie's team shot Thanos point blank in the face. His head snapped back as Valkyrie stabbed him again.

Nebula's body had been knitting itself back together in the midst of all this, and now she was able to stand. She came to her feet and staggered forward, a fierce expression on her face. "You always made it clear who you liked best," she growled, stalking forward, "but I'm still here and soon you won't be."

"I made you everything that you are," Thanos growled, swinging his right arm around. It caught Valkyrie in the face, sending her flying.

Thor brought Stormbreaker down on Thanos' arm, shattering the bone to splinters as Nebula screamed "And we all hated you for that!"

As soon as the bone broke and Thanos' arm was separated from his body, the gauntlet slid off without any difficulty at all. Before anyone could stop him, Tony plunged his own left arm into the Gauntlet.

Thanos fell beneath the onslaught of dozens of heroes now attacking him. Tony skittered backward from the fray, unsteady as the power of all the Infinity Stones flooded through him. Without needing to be told to, the suit shunted power into storage cells and auxiliary units to siphon it off. The red glow was brighter beneath his feet now, as if he was walking on pure magic.

"I've seen your universe, Thanos," Tony said through grit teeth. "It's sad and lonely and _wrong._ Now I am going to put it back the way it was. It wasn't perfect, but it was _ours."_

The red beneath their feet and greenish gold cast to the sun above exploded as Tony let the power loose. Shadowy figures turned solid and full of color, life flooding back into them. His vision blurred, as if he was seeing double, different worlds superimposed over each other. Striding toward him was Doctor Strange, looking much the way he had been before he turned to ashes. Wanda, Loki, and a woman dressed in gold stood behind him. Doctor Strange caught him as he collapsed, power blackening his veins and giving his skin a ghastly purple tinge.

"Let go," he told Tony, a kind edge to his commanding tone. "We're here, we'll finish it for you."

"You're back?" Tony gasped, not sure if he could trust what he was seeing. "Really?"

"Really."

Wanda had a sad expression on her face, and her entire body shimmered red. "We're ready, Tony."

With a groan of relief, Tony unclenched his left fist and the gauntlet slid off of it as his will let go of the gauntlet. He fell backward toward the ground, out of Doctor Strange's arms, and the most incomprehensible thing to him was noticing that Loki stood there barefoot as he passed out.

The sorcerers, fully present and in the flesh, didn't put on the gauntlet. Instead, it was balanced between the four of them, and as one they nodded at each other and began to weave an intricate containment spell that pulled the stones out of the sockets. The stones spun in a circle, and soon Strange reached out for the time gem to place back inside the Eye of Agamotto. Loki retrieved the Tesseract with a fond smile. Wanda took hold of the mind gem. Frigga took hold of the aether, winding it around her gold colored magic. That left the power and soul gems, floating in lazy circles around each other. The soul gem opened like a faceted crystal flower, and Gamora stepped out of it, appearing dazed. She reached up when her feet hit the red-hazed ground, then caught the soul gem in her hand.

That left the power stone, hovering in the air uncertainly, as if waiting for someone able to hold it. Both Thor and Steve were near the circle of sorcerers, and Steve was the one to step forward first. "We need to keep them safe," he said, not yet extending a hand to take it. "Do we even know how?"

Wanda smiled at him warmly as Vision solidified beside her and the mind stone rose out of her hand to take its place in the center of his forehead. "You've always known how to wield power responsibly, Captain. You've never tried to harm others."

"Not if they didn't earn it, anyway," he told her with a self deprecating smile. Now he reached up and touched the power stone, letting it fall toward his outstretched palm. "It feels alive."

"They all are, after a fashion," Vision said as he opened his eyes. He linked his fingers through Wanda's, and focused on Steve. "Most don't care for their feelings or needs or wants, and simply use them as tools."

"Powerful tools," Loki admitted, Tesseract firmly in his hand. He clearly had no intention of letting go or giving up.

"But ones that choose where they want to be," Steve guessed, looking down at the purple gem in the palm of his hand. "They know where they'll be safe."

"Just so, Captain," Vision said with a smile. "You have always been one to use power responsibly." He was echoing Wanda's words, and for a moment, the two seemed to be inseparable, one and the same, images blurred and superimposed on each other when Steve tried to look at them.

"With great power comes great responsibility," Peter Parker said, approaching the circle with an awkward smile. "My Uncle Ben used to say that," he added when all heads turned to him. "And I figured you'd want to know when the big bad looks kinda dead, but I don't really trust it, you know?"

"We had a plan to dupe the energy signatures of the stones, hide them throughout the universe so that no one could ever do this again."

"I suppose there's adding more resources to planets, making them more sustainable, making it easier to live in harmony," Frigga murmured, aether wafting around her. She gave them all a wan smile. "It was the madman's excuse, after all. Simply adding more of what's present, evening out the resources."

Steve thought about it carefully. "There's always going to be someone to hoard them, to lord it over those that can't amass a fortune of their own. So we'll still need to get together, protect those that can't protect themselves."

Gamora smiled at him. "I will help you, and I know the Guardians all will. Because you're right, and we're all capable of helping."

The power of the aether swirled around Frigga at a faster rate. "So together, all of us..." She held out her hands and let Loki take one. The Tesseract hovered in front of him, and Vision took his other hand as Strange took Frigga's. Steve took Strange's hand as Gamora grasped Vision's. As she and Steve linked hands, completing the circle, the stones all hovered in front of their bearers.

Wanda stood behind-through-inside Vision, and her magic rose up around them. "We built a reality in the land of the dead, made of memories and love and everything we wanted it to be. Now it's made real, and we need to be sure it will always remain. This can never happen again."

As she spoke, the stone appeared to double, triple, quadruple, more and more. It was a colored blur, then most shot out from the swirl of color to enter the galaxy at large.

Vision retained the mind gem, and Loki refused to let go of the Tesseract. Strange needed to retain the time stone. The others were more than eager to let go of the burdens they carried, however briefly. Loki gave Frigga a smile when she arched a brow in his direction, a corner of her mouth ticking up in a sardonic and questioning smile. "It needs me as much as I need it. We'll take care of each other."

She cupped his cheek gently, then leaned in to kiss his forehead. "Your kingdom and your people still need you, Loki. They would be poorer without your presence."

His expression was sad and resigned. "I am not _good."_

"We've all changed, and now we should be able to start again. Our fates are our own, as much as the Norns could give it to us."

Thor, who had hovered uncertainly behind them, now stepped forward. "I would ask for your counsel, brother. As before, we'll begin anew, learn who we are now and who we could be."

Doctor Strange stepped forward in full regalia as Sorcerer Supreme, Eye of Agamotto on his chest. "There's a lot to be done to be sure the balance is in store, and Thanos is hardly the only threat to our reality." He let out a slow breath. "Don't wait until it's too late to reach out, all right? The magical community on Earth is scattered, but maybe it's time to change that," he said, holding a hand out to Loki.

Though he eyed Strange warily, Loki ultimately took it. "I'll think on it," he allowed.

"What do we do with Thanos?" Steve asked, looking around with a frown. "Everyone wanted a piece of him, and there was nobody left to help him."

"And I sure as hell didn't wish his underlings back into existence," Tony said, staggering forward. He was rubbing his left arm and grimacing at the pain there. "Ugh. That thing definitely leaves an impression, and it's not a good one."

Steve pulled Tony into a tight hug, clapping him on the back. "I'm glad you're all right. None of this would have been worth it if we lost you in the process."

"A lot of us," Tony said tiredly, patting his arm. "Let's go do a head count, make sure we're all really okay."

Steve turned and his expression lit up when he saw Bucky and Natasha hugging each other desperately in the distance. "Oh, God, Bucky!"

There were reunions everywhere, and Tony found himself walking around, watching them. He tapped his faceplate to close it back so he could call Pepper. "Hey," he said as a greeting. "I think we did it."

Pepper sounded as if she was crying. "The ship is so full now. You did it, Tony. You all made it work."

"Can they beam me up? 'Cause I'd really like to see you right now."

"I don't think they have it, but we'll figure something out." Those were definitely tears of joy. "All these people here, we'll make it work."

Tony wandered around after the call, seeing the tearful reunions all over, the hugs and kisses and need to touch to confirm that the dead were back. Some people thanked him, most had no idea who he was or what role he played in all this.

Thanos was guarded by dozens of volunteers, none of them trusted that he wouldn't do something even though he was bleeding out. Nebula had a grim, satisfied look on her face. "Hey, Blue," Tony called out to her, opening the faceplate. A shuttle was approaching from overhead, but he ignored it for the moment. "Feel as good as you thought it would?"

"Yes and no," Nebula said distantly, eyes not moving off of Thanos' drawn expression. "There should've been more."

"Funny how the villains lose their shine after a while," Tony muttered, nodding in Thanos' direction. "When they're all alone, no power left, no armor, what have you got? Nothing."

Nebula looked at him finally. "I was not expecting emptiness. I expected more."

"We all do," Tony said with a nod. "Wanna come back to Earth with me, then?" he asked impulsively. "You never got a chance to see my place, just Queen Shuri's."

She frowned at him. "Is there danger there?"

"Just having to save off boredom, probably," he said, then turned when he heard his name called, and saw Pepper getting out of the shuttle, as well as Jane and a few of the volunteers that had been up on the ship. Pepper ran up to him and grabbed hold of the armor. As he bent down to her, she grabbed his face and kissed him. 

Afterward, she exclaimed over the scorch marks on the suit where he'd had the gauntlet, however briefly, and turned to Nebula. "You kept him safe, didn't you?" Before Nebula could even reply, she grasped her hands tightly. _"Thank you."_

Embarrassed because she _hadn't_. been involved, Nebula turned away. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Thanos' longing expression as he took his last breath. He was alone, surrounded by enemies and none that would ever miss him or mourn him. No, everyone on this planet and throughout the galaxy would only celebrate his death. He was alone, unloved, unwanted, unimportant. Everything he'd ever worked for in his entire existence was undone, his every achievement considered an abomination.

Turning back to Tony and Pepper, Nebula stretched her lips in a semblance of a smile. "My sister is alive again, and I want to get to know her as one now."

Tony grinned. "Bring her along, Blue. The more the merrier, promise. Now that the hard part is over, we get to actually get to know each other."

Gamora was easy to pick out, Peter Quill clutching hold of her for dear life. She met Nebula's gaze and smiled, lifting a hand.

"I'd like that," Nebula told them honestly.

There were worse fates than to be all together again, and no one would experience it now.

The End


End file.
